EXHIBITIONS

Photo-Role-Playing

Curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill
Northlight Gallery & Step Gallery, Arizona State University

605 E Grant Street Studio Phoenix, AZ

August 28 – September 26, 2026

Opening: September 26, 2026 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

A group show of ASU students and faculty, Arizona, national and international artists, on the relationship between photography and performance / performativity, involving embodiment, representation and self-representation, masquerading, enactment, role-play, body politics, gender and cultural identity. Photography epitomizes a long history of tensions, objectification, and oppression, as well as of agency, experimentation, self-determination and autonomy. Photo-Role-Playing is an exhibition that centers the body through performing the self and others in photography as a vital form of agency in contemporary art.

Participating Artists: Andrea Benge & Tiffany Eichelberger, Camila Bianchi, Bentley Brown, Roger Buchanan, Liz Cohen, Judy Dater, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, David Entrican, Mikey Foster Estes, Lucia Farrow, C. E. Fitzgerald, Nathan Garcia, Fátima García, Denis Gillingwater, Erika Lynne Hanson, Hilary Harp & Suzie Silver, KJ Herb, Celina Hernandez, Meredith Hoy, Ana Victoria Jiménez, MaRiane Vincent Kooistra, Rennan Kooistra, Wayne R. Lazorik, Hedieh Lotfi, Clarita Lulić, María Evelia Marmolejo, Muriel Magenta, Julia Martin, Sara Meghdari, Bucky Miller, Mehrdad Mirzaie, Camille Misty, Lisette Model, Zahra Motallebi, Hasti Najafi, Tony Nelssen, Ann Noggle, Myungsik Park, Grace Piontek, Rembrandt Quiballo & Nicole L. Olson, Saba Raissian, Barbara Jo Revelle, Athena Rhys Solan, Erphaneh Sadeghzadeh, Gregory Sale, Patricia Sannit, Betsy Schneider, Herman Seidel, Alfred Stieglitz, Liza Stout, Meshkat Talebi, Mana Tashakorinia, Dean Terasaki, Janet Toro, Sierra Vannelli, Alixandria Vengoechea, Julia Vidrio, Michelle Villarreal Pina, Karima Walker, Jack Welpott, William Wegman, Ruth Weisberg, Pat York, Mary Zettlemoyer.

Exhibition open Call: Photo-Role-Playing

Deadline August 1st

March 20,2026 – March 28, 2026

To Wilt

This is not a romance. It is an inquiry into what love becomes under observation: image, transcript, measurement, replay.

February 06 – February 28, 2026

1970s Photography in the Northlight Collection

Anne Noggle, Roger Buchanan, and New California Views: 1970s Photography in the Northlight Collection. The 1970s was a decade marked by change, economic and energy crises, the Watergate scandal, the continuation of the civil rights movement, protests against the Vietnam war, economic inequality, activism for lgbtqia and women’s rights, and affirmative action.

October 17 – November 8, 2025

Unsuspected

Unsuspected proposes to focus on the overlooked, the insignificant, and the forgotten.

September 05 – October 03 , 2025

Of Light and Alchemy

In the exhibition, Of Light and Alchemy, the desire still burns in these artists as they continue the rich and multi-faceted tradition of experimentation and discovery that was marked by those announcements nearly 200 years ago.

April 17-26, 2025

Garden

“Garden” comprises thousands of amateur photographs sourced from digital archives and social media accounts, transferred onto glass. Many of these images are manipulated, stripped of names or any contextual information. They depict individuals who lost their lives, were forcibly disappeared, or arrested due to the socio-political conditions in Iran from the Islamic Revolution of February 1979 to the present.

April 03 - April 12, 2025

Tricky Ricky

Tricky Ricky is an interactive thesis exhibition by Richard Pence.

March 20 - March 29, 2025

long violence dreamt me west

Powerlines and trees connect communities, sharing resources, spreading communication. When the ties between them are cut, only a memory of the bond remains. That memory shifts as it passes from mouth to mouth, malleable as copper, occluding and redefining the original relationship; a story broken from its context and reimagined again and again.

February 28 - March 7, 2025

Gut-Rot

Gut-Rot invites audiences to engage with the regenerative potential of decay and our interconnectedness with one another.

Jan 24 to Feb 22

Reclaiming Red

Reclaiming Red explores the colonial implications of the color redand demonstrates how Indigenous people use it for healing, peace, sacredness, unity and Hózhó

November 15- November 25, 2024

After Party

This exhibition of expanded photography takes the mythology of the “Party School” as a point of departure.

September 06 - November 01, 2024

Tasvir Exhibition

A Research Exhibition on Contemporary Iranian Image-Based Art

March 29 to April 27, 2024

Healing – Rethinking Gender

An interdisciplinary collaborative exhibition of artists, faculty and graduate students at ASU.

January 19– February 03, 2024

Land, Body & Archive

Land, Body & Archive, an exhibition by Southwest Photo Collaborative

Phoenix Transect

Phoenix Transect features the work of ASU alumni who participated in a multi-year field study with Professor Emeritus Mark Klett.

Nov. 17-Dec. 1, 2023

Meaning Making Machines

Meaning Making Machines celebrates/visualizes the embodiment of the photographic process through the singular practices of a group of student artists.

Sept. 15 – Nov. 4, 2023

Seral Bodies

Northlight Gallery’s forthcoming exhibition Seral Bodies, is curated by Roshii Montaño and Ninabah Winton and will examine the contemporary practice of Indigenous photographers and artists.

Oct 21 - Nov 19, 2022

American Journey

Join us in the gallery for the opening reception of An American Journey Continues, photographs and digital montage by ASU Professor Stephen Marc.

Sept 8 - Oct 8, 2022

Reimagining Earth

Features the works of ASU MFA alumni who explore the experience of the human animal and the non-human creatures that share this Earth.

April 1 – 23, 2022

50 Years of Curating

Northlight Gallery celebrates 50 years with an exhibition featuring the creative works of its curators since its establishment in 1972.

March 4 – April 2, 2022

Circle of Influence

Northlight Gallery and the ASU School of Art will honor Regents Professor Mark Klett for 40 years of service to the university with an exhibition.

Oct 21 – Nov 19, 2021

Naked and The Nude

Naked and The Nude brings together works from the Northlight Gallery Permanent Collection and the Solari Foundation Collection.

Sept 9 – Oct 9, 2021

Memento Mori

Memento Mori: Memento Vivere is an exhibition on death and photography, and will showcase a collection of image-based works.

Jan 21 – Feb 19, 2021

Borders and Boundlessness

Borders and Boundlessness features the photographs of ASU MFA alumni.

September 26 - October 26, 2019

Person Perception

Person Perception Persona features portraits from the Solari Foundation on loan to Northlight Gallery by photographers well known and accepted in the canon of the history of photography.